The Scopes Monkey Trial - Part 3

This is Part 3 of a three part series.  The first two are from my article on the Scopes Trial from Origins Research associated with Access Research Network:

https://arn.org/

“The Scopes Trial and After,” Origins Research (later Origins & Design), Vol. 2, No. 2, Sep-Oct 1979, pp. 5,6.

 

Scopes Monkey Trial - Part 1:

https://adamslostdream.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-scopes-monkey-trial-part-1.html

 

Scopes Monkey Trial - Part 2:

https://adamslostdream.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-scopes-monkey-trial-part-2.html

 

My #1 book I plug on this topic is Monkey Business by Marvin Olasky (World Mag):

https://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Business-Story-Scopes-Trial/dp/0805431578

 

Christ taught that we live in a youthful world, so that eliminates #Darwinism right away.  Jesus' AGE verses: Mk. 10:6, Mk. 13:19-20, Lk. 11:50,51.  The Butler Act references "the story of the Divine creation of man as taught in the Bible."  At the beginning of the trial only Genesis Chapter One was read!  The Second chapter of Genesis gives the details of Man's Origin.  Furthermore, there are tons of verses throughout the Bible that relate to the "Divine creation of man."

 

What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

    and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

    you put everything under their feet. (Ps. 8:4-6)

 

But at the beginning of creation God "made them male and female." (Mk. 10:6)

 

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them [including Man], but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex. 20:11)

 

Man is made in God's Image and has Dominion.  Adam and Eve were made at the beginning of the world, not millions of years later.  Our work week parallels Creation Week - no room for Deep Time.

In 1923, Oklahoma banned texts that contained the "Darwin Theory of Creation versus the Bible Account of Creation" (Scopes Monkey Trial - Moore & McComas, p. 11).

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/the-scopes-monkey-trial-9781467116480

Moore & McComas fail to include George McCready Price (d. 1963) in their index.  If Price had testified at the trial, there may have been a vastly different outcome - he was away in England.  Price wrote Evolutionary Geology and the New Catastrophism, Were the Fossils Contemporary?, Report on Evolution and many other works.

As for Darrow's Questions ...

Jonah and the Whale ("big fish"):  

https://www.icr.org/content/what-really-swallowed-jonah

Joshua's long day - historical evidence:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/3224-years-later-scientists-see-first-ever-recorded-eclipse-in-joshuas-battle/

Global Flood:

https://www.amazon.com/Earths-Catastrophic-Past-Creation-2014-10-03/dp/B01FGKZJOA

Early Civilizations:

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Ancient-Man-Revelations-Ruins/dp/0890518661

Comparative Religion:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jay-hall-m-s-b64526a_firingline-billbuckley-williamabrfabrbuckleyjr-activity-7261866247930195969-ULS9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAHbbPwBBTN3-5NHy1Ow3Aqgq-KCW2E14ew

The Tower of Babel:

https://answersingenesis.org/tower-of-babel/

The Earth's Age:

Is a Young Earth Possible? - How Science and History Point to a Youthful World and Why it Matters ★★★★½

https://www.amazon.com/Young-Earth-Possible-Science-Youthful/dp/1088860788/

YES - Young Earth Science ★★★★

https://www.amazon.com/YES-WorldView-Fallacies-Darwinism-2014-11-14/dp/B01K3RF10I

Adam's Rib:

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/why-did-god-make-eve-from-part-of-adam

Cain's wife:

He married his sister (Gen. 5:4).

The Days of #Creation_Week

https://www.academia.edu/1561970/A_Defense_of_Literal_Days_in_the_Creation_Week

The tempting serpent:  

The Lord made Balaam's donkey talk, so why not a snake?  See Numbers 22:21-35.

 

The Transcript of the Scopes Monkey Trial, ed. by Anthony Horvath:

https://www.amazon.com/Transcript-Scopes-Monkey-Trial-Unabridged/dp/1947844415

 

Evolutionism Begets Evolutionism (Dr. Nathan Jeanson):

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jay-hall-m-s-b64526a_the-real-reason-why-99-of-scientists-reject-activity-7390077682115538944-QjwB?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAHbbPwBBTN3-5NHy1Ow3Aqgq-KCW2E14ew

 

Please check out my books:

https://totalyouth.us

 

In one article on the Scopes Trial, they confuse Creationists with Flat-Earthers:

https://home.heinonline.org/blog/2023/09/the-scopes-monkey-trial/

 

Young Earthers are not Flat Eartherz >>  

https://adamslostdream.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-real-truth-about-flat-earth.html

 

How Do We Know the Bible is True? - Ham & Hodge:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Do-Know-Bible-True/dp/0890516332

 

There have been a number of Scopes Trial Centennial Events during this year:

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2024/4/11/485666/Scopes-Trial-Centennial-Set-For-2025.aspx

https://artsci.utk.edu/scopes-trial-centennial-celebration/

 

A Word from the #Loyal_Opposition

https://youtu.be/m_zjT67_1o4

 

Monkey Business - Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers & Marilyn Monroe:

https://youtu.be/gH_qxtLPM9k

 

graphic: Scopes Monkey Trial >>

https://chatgpt.com/c/6907e591-7b7c-8333-95e1-1dd3438afbd2

 

#Scopes_Monkey_Trial #Henry_Morris #Destination1925 #ScopesTrial #Origins #Genesis #Mk10_6 #Mk13_19&20 #Lk11_50&51 #Butler_Act #OK #Oklahoma #BlownAway ♪ #Go_Thunder ‼ #evo #Crevo #Destiny ↑ #controversy #YoungEarth #Young_Earth_Science #YES #trial #Dayton  #Tennessee #Year1925 #WilliamJenningsBryan #Clarence_Darrow #History #His_Story ╬

The Death of #TRUTH vs. the Berlinski Factor

 

I recently picked up Comprehensive Guide to Science & Faith (Harvest House).

It's edited by Bill Dembski, Casey Luskin, Joe Holden & has a FWD>> by Stephen "God Hypothesis" Meyer.  Putting "Comprehensive" in the title is very misleading.  The Biblical position of Creation In Six Days #CISD a Global Flood and Young Earth Science (YES) is not fairly represented.  The book pushes ID & is wonky on the Historical Adam.  See here for more on #Adam ...

https://adamslostdream.blogspot.com/2014/08/god-adam-you.html

http://adamslostdream.blogspot.com/2011/06/search-for-historical-adam.html

 

Phillip "Darwin on Trial" Johnson (d. 2019), the Father of ID, started out with arn.org as his main site.  Later in life, he apparently leaned young earth: he visited the Creation Museum (KY) and went on a speaking tour in the UK with Andrew Snelling (Earth's Catastrophic Past).  Read Art Battson's work on the arn site which favors biological essentialism - the real antithesis to evolution:

http://www.arn.org/docs/abstasis.htm

 

Sadly, the "Comprehensive Guide" fails to see critical importance of Aristotle's Biology or Biological Essentialism - I wrote a whole book on the topic (400 pages worth).  Oxford University Press has a book with the same title as mine: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/biological-essentialism-9780198840282

My book Biological Essentialism came out in 2021, two years before: 

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/biological-essentialism-jay-hall/1140135320

 

David Berlinski (Ph.D. Philosophy - Princeton) was a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics and molecular biology at Columbia University.  His book Human Nature was endorsed by Victor Davis Hanson, David Galernter and Peter Robinson (Hoover Inst.) among others.  Berlinski highlights the stark contrast between evolution and biological essentialism:

 

This book ... is unified ... by a common concern for what is an indistinct concept, and that is the concept of human nature. It is a concept severely in disfavor because it suggests that there is something answering to human nature, some collocation of ineliminable and necessary properties that collectively define what it is to be a human being.  There are such properties. … And the fact that there are such properties does involve a commitment to essentialism.  No one disposing of essentialism in biology is disposed to disregard it in logic, mathematics, physics, or ordinary life. Human beings are not indefinitely malleable. There are boundaries beyond which they cannot change. We are not simply apes with larger brains or smaller hands, and the distance between ourselves and our nearest ancestors is what it has always appeared to be, and that is practically infinite. Human beings are perpetually the same, even if in some respects different. [1]

 

In an interview, Berlinski continues on the theme:

 

As an intellectual tendency, I would put the percentage of people prepared to deny essentialism at roughly 99.999%. ... Darwinian theory holds to a continua of animal forms which gradually, imperceptively, shade into one another.  The dividing line between the dogs, if you go back and back in time, doesn't end abruptly, it merges into what came before the dogs.  ... That sense of sharp boundaries must necessarily disappear - there is no room in Darwinian theory for the essentialist view of the dog's nature. [2]

 

Human Nature defends human exceptionalism, I have a whole chapter on that topic in my book:

www.barnesandnoble.com/w/biological-essentialism-jay-hall/1140135320

 

I also argue in Biological Essentialism that this premise (stasis of Essential Types of Life - ETLs) naturally leads to a Single Global Catastrophe that formed most of the rock record just a few thousand years ago.  Which in turn, favors YES.

 

In our latest video, we defend #YES & discuss the total solar eclipse, Dawkins, Kyle Mann, Jesus' AGE verses (Mk. 10:6; Mk. 13:19,20; Lk. 11:50,51), The Young Earth, Don McLeroy etc.  Many origins researchers ignore the significance of Young Earth Science (YES), but that's a serious mistake.  I provide evidence from Yandex, Rumble and SwissCows that YES is truly trending:

https://youtu.be/yEQ5xJPg5Rs

 

see also ...

Young Earth Today 2029 (blog article):  

https://youngearthscienceblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/young-earth-today-2029-young-earth-memes.html

 

On a positive note, the cover of the "Comprehensive Guide" is cool and the number one book I recommend on the proper view of Genesis is mentioned (p. 559).  Coming to Grips with Genesis (Mortenson & Ury):   

https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/coming-grips-genesis/

 

 

Notes:

[1] quoted in Biological Essentialism by Jay L. Hall (True Truth Productions, Big Spring, TX, 2021), pp. 101,102.

[2] Ibid., p. 35.

note: True Truth Productions is now in OKC.

 

Maths Challenges Evo+Darwin >>

https://youtu.be/noj4phMT9OE

 

 

#HumanNature #Berlinski #HistoricalAdam #Genesis #BiologicalEssentialism #BioEss #bio-essentialism #NaturalKinds #SpeciesProblem #cladistics #CISD #ETL #YoungEarthScience #YES #evo #Darwin #God_Hypothesis #HumanExceptionalism #BillDembski #CaseyLuskin #JoeHolden #Gen1to11  #StephenMeyer #comprehensive_def #HarvestHouse #Science_and_Faith

#PeterRobinson #DavidBerlinski #DavidGelernter #TrueTruth #TotalYouth

Westminster Wasp - Tucker "Dancew" Starz Goes 13 Steps!

 ** Tucker "Dancew" Starz Starts 13 Step Group **

Do you like hangin' out with your buds on TUE nites and drink bucket loads of coffee?  Are you a Journalist, News Anchor, Media Mogul or #SocMed Content Creator?  Do you believe in a Higher Power?  Well, have I got a deal for YOU!  Tucker-the-TruthTeller has created a new support group to help those escaping the Fake News Cult. 

 

You too can say the #Pledge ...

 

Howdy!  My name is Irene and I am powerless to save myself and overcome my fraud addiction on my own.  I promise to send Bibles to all those I've pulled the flim-flam on.  I pledge to call and/or text my #Mentor daily to remain accountable.  I lean on my Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of God to overcome my life-dominating sin.  One day at a time, I have the victory.  Praise the Lord!  Hallelujah‼    

 

Tucker plans to start chapters in DC, NYC, LA, Portland, #SanFran and other Leftist towns.  After receiving their 5 year pin, all members get a free copy of "Uncle Bob's Big Book of Change."  What is the 13th step? ...

 

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Rom. 10:9,10)

 

#Bthe_Change #TellTheTRUTH #StayOn_theWagon #TruthMatterz       

Tucker on DWTS:

https://rumble.com/v2kb470-tucker-carlson-on-dancing-with-the-stars.html

 

 

** Climate Change & the #Death of #MAN **

Have you ever been lost in E LA?  I know I have.*  With $700 cash I rented a Ford Escort in the 1980's in Hollywood.  Armed with a map and a misdirected #SOUL I wound up in East Los Angeles in the early evening.  What was my intended destination? ... Redondo Beach!  But the question remains, why did this disaster invade my time-stream?  Climate Change, of course‼ (cf. Is. 46:10)      

 

According to the Davos Center for New Age Understanding (located in Cleveland), mankind will face utter extinction within the next ten years if the

#ClimateChange Monster is not defeated.  Attention all Super Heroes!  Now is the thyme for all good XX-women and XY-men to come to the aid of Earth.

 

Other negative results of Climate Change may include an imminent Yellowstone eruption, war with Nukes, Big Rock Hits Earth, bioweapons from Renmin Gongshe, Coronal Mass Ejections, #PlanDemix and the impending Zombie Apocalypse.  Francis Schaeffer (d. 1984) on the #DeathOfMAN >>

https://www.amazon.com/Pollution-Death-Man-Christian-Ecology/dp/0842348409

 

 

** Andrew Tate* Does the Manly Thing **

Tate spoke of his conversion to Islam with British Muslim podcaster Mohammad Hijab (10-29-22).  Tate said that elites in Western cultures promote feminism which pushes women to work outside the home while their children are brainwashed in state schools and by the #NET

https://tinyurl.com/495z8f32

 

Online influencer Tate doles out some potent aphorisms such as, "I support good and honest governments and I will obey only those laws."

https://cobratate.com/41-tenets

 

Dr. White, Tate and #Zuby (@ 14:50) >>

https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/the-dividing-line/shortened-road-trip-dl-response-to-andrew-tate-conversion/

 

* Opps ‼ this is a real story.

 

Please support us on #Patreon to see our latest videos "Mortimer Adler's Apologetic" & "Van Damme vs. Van Til" & "7 Daze" (Creation Week) >>

https://patreon.com/TrueTruthProductions

My books challenge Darwin and Deep Time:

https://totalyouth.us/

 

#FrancisSchaeffer #Creationista #TrueTruth #TotalYouth #WestminsterWasp #WestminsterWaspWED #TuckerCarlson #Irene #AndrewTate #TwelveSteps #Step13 #God #Jesus #Bible #YES #YoungEarthScience #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #ICE_AGE #NWO #DancingWithStars #AOMin #Zuby #Oppz #HigherPower #FakeNews #SocMed #SanFran #St_Francis #FordEscort  #RedondoBeach #MohammadHijab

OC Weekly, Bill Morgan and BIAS

In 2012, Adam O’Neal wrote a significant article on creationist Bill Morgan in the OC Weekly (Orange County, CA).  He starts off speaking of Francisco Ayala (biologist, UC – Irvine, former Dominican priest) who admitted:

Randomly induced mutations are usually deleterious.  In a precisely organized and coupled system like the genome of an organism, a random change will most frequently decrease, rather than increase, the orderliness or useful information of the system. [1]

That is, mutations reduce information, yet evolution in the sense of Bacteria-to-BigBangTheory (the TV show) requires an increase in info.

Ayala stated elsewhere, “From today’s perspective, [Theodosius] Dobzhansky appears as perhaps the most eminent evolutionist of the twentieth century.” [2]  So, let’s hear what Dobzhansky said about one of Darwin’s critics,

The book of Pierre P. Grassé [The Evolution of Living Organisms] … is a frontal attack on all kinds of ‘Darwinism.’  His purpose is to ‘destroy the myth of evolution as a simple, understood and explained phenomenon,’ and to show that evolution is a mystery about which little is, and perhaps can be, known.  Now, one can disagree with Grassé but not ignore him.  He is the most distinguished of French zoologists, the editor of the 28 volumes of ‘Traité de Zoologie,’ author of numerous original investigations, and ex-president of The Academie des Sciences.  His knowledge of the living world is encyclopedic. [3]

The Evolution of Living Organisms is an older work; nevertheless, Grassé’s critique of Darwin has not been refuted.

O’Neal brings up polling data.  A recent AP-GfK poll showed that a full 36% of Americans (18 years old & up) are “not too (or not at all) confident” that the Earth is 4.5B years old.  If evolutionary evidence is so convincing, why is this number so large?  O’Neal was kind enough to plug Bill Morgan’s website FishDontWalk.com where you can find a Neato-Esposito comic.  Morgan appeared on George Noory’s Coast-to-Coast AM in 2007.

Is there a slant in Major Media – YES!  This article by O’Neal verifies that fact.  Emmy Award winner Bernie Goldberg was at CBS for almost 30 years and wrote Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News.  A revised edition came out just last year.

“He who states his case first seems right, until his rival comes and cross-examines him” (Pr. 18:17, Amp.).

Be sure to tell your friends about the cool new book showing that Philosophy, Geology, Biology and History favor Young_Earth_Science (YES).  There is a shortcut to the site >> TotalYouth.us >> “For TOTAL Truth, support Earth’s YOUTH.”

Notes:

1) Ayala, Francisco J., “Genotype, Environment and Population Numbers,” Science, vol. 162 (December 27, 1968), p. 1456.

2) Ayala, Francisco J., “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution, Theodosius Dobzhansky: 1900-1975,” Journal of Heredity, vol. 68, (January/February 1977), p. 6.

3) Dobzhansky, Theodosius, “Darwinian or ‘Oriented’ Evolution?” Evolution, vol. 29 (June 1975), p. 376, emphasis added.

p.s.:  I was a journalist for a year before I attended the University of Oklahoma.  I had the privilege to interview Maya Angelou.  I have a great respect for O’Neal’s profession and overall, he did an excellent job considering the WorldView that he wrote from.

Intelligent Design (ID) implies Young Earth Science (YES)

Harvard grad Phillip E. Johnson was the law clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren and taught law for 30 years at UC Berkeley.  Johnson is most known for being the father of Intelligent Design (ID).  Access Research Network (ARN) was Phillip Johnson’s recommended site: [1]

The new Executive Director for ARN is Art Battson (as of 1-1-15).  Dennis Wagner was the prior leader.  Amazingly, Battson’s views support the stability of Essential Types of Life (ETL’s).

A snazzy new book YES – Young Earth Science has a whole chapter on the stasis of ETL’s.  Essentialism has a long history - Aristotle easily observed that wolves reproduce wolves and rabbits make more rabbits.  Given eon’s a sheep will never turn into a shepherd

Even is Darwin’s day all scientists were not convinced.  Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (FRS, d. 1882), chief scientist on the Challenger expedition which revolutionized oceanography, rejected the “theory which refers the evolution of species to extreme variation guided only by natural selection.” [2]

YES – Young Earth Science shows that stasis of ETL’s, Catastrophism and a Young Earth are connected.  Thus, Intelligent Design implies Young Earth Science (YES).  There are numerous data which favors YES.  Phillip Johnson is clearly YES friendly.

Notes:

1)  Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds by Phillip Johnson (IVP, Downers Grove, IL, 1997), p. 11.

2)  quoted in “Counting Sheep Since Jacob’s Day” by Brian Thomas, Acts & Facts, Feb. 2014, p. 15.

Creationism in the Mainstream – David Limbaugh

David Limbaugh (Rush’s bro) has a brand new book out – Jesus on Trial.  This is a well written and compelling work defending the truth of the Gospel. Sean Hannity recently talked with David about the book.  PJTV also has an interview.

David recounts when Steve Springer witnessed to him:

Steve did not fit my perception at the time of the stereotypical young Christian – a judgmental holy roller who accepted Christianity uncritically.  He exhibited an extraordinary measure of grace.  He not only didn’t take offense at my skepticism, but he patiently retrieved his Bible … and began to walk me through a few fascinating verses. [1]

Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias and Paul Little were instrumental in leading David to Christ.  David says this about philosophy:  “I believe philosophy can be a worthy field of study, but I don’t think we can improve on the Bible’s revealed truths in conveying God’s nature and His plan of redemption and salvation for mankind.” [2]

After David had read the Gospel of John several times, he confesses:  “… I was on fire and began reading the Bible and everything about the Bible and theology I could get my hands on.” [3]

David references Ray Comfort in a positive light in his chapter “Science Makes the Case – for Christianity.”  Comfort apparently favors Young Earth Science (YES).

David references Kurt Wise’s Faith, Form and Time which defends YES.  David also quotes Nancy Pearcey who apparently affirms the young earth.  Pearcey was a contributing editor to Bible-Science News for a number of years.  This was published by the Bible-Science Association (founded by Walter Lang) whose motto included “A Young Earth.”

David points out that a large number of Christians,

… believe in a young earth, and of those who do, many are hardly science deniers; they don’t base their beliefs simply on blind faith.  They subscribe to different scientific theories, even if one might find those outside the mainstream of scientific consensus, or they question the unprovable assumptions used in dating techniques … [4]

Amen David‼

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:20-24)

Notes:

1)  Jesus on Trial by David Limbaugh (Regnery, Wash. DC, 2014), p. 6.

2)  Ibid., p. 14.

3)  Ibid., p. 15.

4)  Ibid., p. 290.

James Hutton and the Lost Preface

              *** UPDATE ***

Be sure to catch our latest video.  We tackle a potpourri of topics:  Thunder & C-14, Tree Rings & Ammonites,  Norman Macbeth (Darwin Retried), OMNI magazine & censorship ... #Rubio #NormanMacbeth #Darwin #AltMed #TreeRings

James Hutton, the Father of Deep Time, wrote a preface to his Theory of the Earth (1788 and 1795) that was not published until 1975!  Although Hutton was a Deist and rejected Genesis, he held that man has been on this planet for only thousands of years‼ [1]   So, in one sense, Hutton supported Young Earth Science (YES). 

Hutton’s title for the preface is “Memorial justifying the present Theory of the Earth from the suspicion of impiety.”  Hutton understood that his innovations contradict Moses.

Hutton begins his preface as follows:

It belongs to religion to teach, that God made all things with creative power; that perfect wisdom had then presided in the election of ends & means, and that nothing is done without the most benevolent intention. But it belongs not to religion to give a history of nature, or to inform mankind of those things which actually are; it belongs not to religion, to teach that natural order of events, which man, in his science, may be able to unfold, and, in the wise system of intellect, find means to ascertain. The object of revelation and that of natural philosophy being thus perfectly different, it must be absurd to suppose that these can truly interfere; as this may only happen in supposing them not strictly adhering to their respective subjects and one or other of them as not being just. [2]

Notice how this is similar to Stephen Jay Gould’s NOMA position (Nonoverlapping Magisteria).

Hutton shows genuine candor in his preface:

… which of those two contradictory doctrines [“science v. religion”] should be of the highest authority, or command belief: the one is supposed to be divine revelation, the other to be the produce of natural philosophy. Such a question will not appear strange to a person who is truly pious, who acknowledges that all faculties are given him from above, that the laws of nature are true & steady as their author, and that man, made after the image of God, has been ordained to read the wisdom of his author in his works.

lt may perhaps he alledged, that as, from the fallibility of human reasoning, a physical disquisition may he erroneous, revelation, proceeding from a source which cannot err, should not only be reverenced as sacred, but must be received without dispute, and stand unaffected by every authority which is precarious.… it is not here meant either to impeach the authenticity of revelation, or to defend the fallibility of philosophic reasoning; these two things, as sources of human information, can only be compared properly when each, in its kind, is considered as perfect. [3]

Science is “perfect?”  Hutton capitalizes God, but not Author (hmm …). Science is based on fallible human reasoning.

Hutton gives this shocking admission:

It must be evident that if there be in the author of nature truth and in the author of men benevolence, the word of God, whether revealed by the common faculties of man, or given to human understanding in a preternatural [outside of nature] manner, must be always one.  Consequently it were impious to suppose that either one or other of those two different means of information had superior authority or that the proper result of each had not an equal right to be believed. [4]

Is Mother Nature the 67^th book of the Bible??  Where have I heard that before?

Hutton goes on,

The christian religion is founded upon what is contained in the ancient Jewish writings; and in those writings we find something which seems to have the appearance of natural history. But that this is not truly so, or, at least, that such a part of natural history has no concern whatever with the present theory of the earth, will appear from the following considerations. The mosaic history of the creation, in giving a most succinct account of the order in which things were made, contains no chronological description of the beginning of things, or such as might apply to our measure of time, which is by days & years. This will appear by considering, that the sun, by which we measure our time, was not formed until the fourth distinguished period of the creation; and that it would be unreasonable, or no less than absurd, to suppose the term Day, by which each of those periods is expressed, in this Jewish history, means any thing besides an indefinite period, or means any more than to signify that God made all things in a certain order. [5]

Hutton does not capitalize Christian or Mosaic.  Genesis clearly does give a natural history.  About sixteen centuries after Creation Week this globe was destroyed by a worldwide catastrophe (Gen. 9:11).  The Genesis days are real days (Ex. 20:11).

Hutton claimed that his theory, “… does not in any respect interfere with chronology of the Old Testament.” [6]  Genesis chapters 5 and 11 provide an accurate chronology that validates Young Earth Science (YES).

The Great Lisbon Earthquake (1755) occurred in Hutton’s time.  The earthquake and the associated tsunami almost destroyed Lisbon and the surrounding regions.  Seismologists estimate a magnitude 8.5 to 9 for this quake.  Despite such events, Hutton veered away from catastrophism.  Catastrophism is now in a Renaissance.  Writing in Megaflooding on Earth and Mars (Cambridge Univ. Press), Victor Baker states,

After centuries of geological controversy it is now well established that the last major deglaciation of planet Earth involved huge fluxes of water from the wasting continental ice sheets, and that much of this water was delivered as floods of immense magnitude and relatively short duration. [7]

Hutton held to fixity of kinds.  This biological stasis leads one to hold to a worldwide cataclysm. [3]   Biological essentialism => Catastrophism => Young Earth Science (YES).

“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (Jn. 3:12).

Graphics credit:  Francis Schaeffer Hall.

Notes:

1) “James Hutton on Religion and Geology:  the Unpublished Preface to his Theory of the Earth (1788)” by Dennis Dean, Annals of Science 32 (1975): 187-193, p. 191.
2) Ibid., p. 189.
3) Ibid.
4) Ibid., p. 190.
5) Ibid.
6) Ibid.
7) Megaflooding on Earth and Mars ed. by Devon Burr, Paul Carling and Victor Baker (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009), p. 1
8) “Huttonian Biology and Geologic Upheaval” by Jay Hall, Creation Research Society Quarterly (1984), 21:76-78.